Ireland has more workers in low-paid employment per capita than any other EU country, the Dáil has heard.

Sinn Féin TD Michael Colreavy, who made the claim, said more than one-third of workers in the State would be paid less than €20,000 this year. "To put this in perspective", he said, €20,000 was one-eighth of what a Government Minister would earn this year.

The Sligo-North Leitrim TD said it was “shameful” that Ireland had the highest EU rate of low-paid employment, and described the JobBridge scheme as “slavery” and “bogus”.

He was speaking during the second day of debate on the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, which includes a two-year back-to-work family dividend for those returning to employment, allowing them to retain welfare benefits. The Bill passed second stage by 82 to 36 votes with the support of Sinn Féin. Fianna Fáil voted against the legislation.

Savaged

Mr Colreavy welcomed the family dividend and said family support had been savaged over the past eight years. But he said it did not address the issue of low-paid employment.

And he hit out at the “detestable zero-hour contracts”, in which employees are available for work without guaranteed hours: “These contracts continue to be utilised by employers for their benefit and against the best interests of workers and their families.” It was an “indictment of Government and of the trade union movement that this reprehensible practice is allowed to continue”.

He believed the JobBridge scheme had led to free employment for unscrupulous employers. “It is a form of slavery. Unscrupulous employers are taking advantage of this scheme, under which employees are being paid €50 on top of their social welfare entitlement on the basis of their being trained for something better.”

The scheme was “not optional”, he claimed, and people who refused to participate “lose their social welfare entitlement”.

Minister of State Kevin Humphreys insisted, however, that "participation in JobBridge is voluntary".

But the Sinn Féin TD said “people are being told that if they do not participate in the scheme their entitlements will be called into question”.

Return to work

Tánaiste Joan Burton, who introduced the legislation, said the back-to-work family dividend would help jobseekers with families and lone parents to return to work or to increase the number of hours worked.

“I am also enhancing support for lone parents with children between the ages of seven and 15 through an extension of eligibility for the jobseekers’ allowance transitional arrangements and changes in eligibility for the one-parent family payment,” she said.

Fine Gael's Paul Connaughton said the provisions were a welcome step forward but added, "let's be honest. Those in their late 50s and early 60s will not find employment easily".

His party colleague Derek Keating, a former community employment scheme supervisor, said the schemes had a value "in keeping some people out of pubs, bed or bookmakers' offices and in keeping others out of hospitals and off medications".